Are Your Oral Piercings Increasing Your Chances for Gum Disease?

Posted on 9/20/2018 by Mettler & Griego Family Dentistry

Oral piercings are very popular among young people because it's a form of self-expression. You are always fighting to prevent the bacteria in your mouth from damaging your teeth and gums and getting oral piercings could create more headaches than they're worth.

While body piercings are a way in which people display their personalities, some are safer than others, and oral piercings top the list of unsafe practices.

Why Oral Piercings Are Not Safe

When you get an oral piercing, someone who is not a dental professional is making a hole in your tongue, lip, cheek or the back of your throat. The first concern is whether the establishment or individual doing this procedure is using sterile tools and the second is the quality of the jewellery. The risk of infection from oral piercings is exceptionally high and can result in other, more severe side effects, such as difficulties breathing.

As you probably know because we tell you all the time, your mouth is full of bacteria, and any foreign object inside of it could create a problem. Let's say you get a piercing in your tongue and it gets infected because you don't take proper care of it.

Any infection can cause swelling, and if your tongue is swollen, it can be difficult to breathe, which could turn into a life-threatening situation.

With any piercing in your body comes responsibilities to care for it as instructed to avoid complications from infections. You may think a piercing in your lip or tongue looks cool, but you must be prepared to assume the responsibilities of taking care of the site correctly.

Another downside of getting oral piercings is that the metal used in the jewellery could be rubbing against your teeth causing damage to the enamel. At least one study concluded that people with tongue piercings suffer from gum disease more than those with a lip piercing. The study by Swiss researchers found that those with a tongue piercing suffered from bleeding or receding gums, compared to those with a lip piercing.

There are many ways to express yourself, but oral piercings can be outright dangerous. Please let us know if you have a question about oral piercings or concern if you have one.